Water sports boards, which include, without limitation, surfboards, windsurfing boards and body boards, have been around for many years and are constructed in a variety of ways and with various materials. The present disclosure is particularly concerned with surfboards. Each type of surfboard has certain advantages and disadvantages. Surfboards are constructed to address certain needs such as, but not limited to, transportability, durability, safety, and performance. The delicate balance between surfboard weight, shape, the type and number of fins, and the fin configuration determines performance.
Traditional surfboards are rigid and can be made of entirely of wood, can be a composite of a core material and outer shell, or just a hollow shell. The core is typically coated with Fiberglas®, carbon fiber composite or a variety of plastic and resin outer shells. Rigid surfboards are not normally collapsible for ease of transport and storage. However, some surfboards can be disassembled into sections for these purposes. Durability depends on the materials used and usually comes at the price of surfboard performance because of added weight, except in the case of Tuflite® surfboards. Tuflite® surfboards use a combination of lightweight EPS (Expanded Poly Styrene) foam core material with a layered PVC and Fiberglas® composite shell for strength and durability. The most common type of surfboard is a polyurethane foam core with a Fiberglas® outer shell. These boards are lightweight, sturdy, and capable of high performance. However, these boards are very susceptible to damage (“dings”) and even breakage in large surf conditions. In general, rigid surfboards also suffer from safety issues. A fast moving surfboard can cause serious injury. Some rigid surfboards have been made that address safety by covering the outer shell with a soft material that cushions impacts.
A class of surfboards has emerged called soft surfboards. These boards specifically address the need for safety and durability by using softer semirigid foam as the primary material. However, these boards are mostly used by beginners and are not capable of high performance surfing.
Many attempts have also been made to address transportability, durability and safety as primary concerns. These mostly take the form of inflatable surfboards. For the purposes of this discussion, the previous approaches to inflatable surfboards are placed into two categories. Category I includes surfboards that are inflatable and derive their shape from rigid supports. Category II includes surfboards that have a single inflation chamber and keep their shape through use of flexible supports throughout the inside of the surfboard. Often this support takes the form of drop stitching.
There are some disadvantages of Category I surfboards. These surfboards are more complicated than a single collapsible board. These surfboards depend on extra rigid supports or multiple air chambers that complicate setup, transport and construction. Also, the rigid elements make these surfboards less safe to use compared to Category II surfboards which are fully flexible when deflated. Finally, Category I boards are only a rough approximation of the shape needed for skilled surfing and are not suitable for high performance surfing.
Category II surfboards overcome the complication of added rigid support and multiple air chambers. These surfboards are simpler to use and, at low inflation pressure, are safer to use. These surfboards can be easily folded and stowed away and just as easily inflated. These surfboards are durable because they rely on the same technology as rubber rafts, for example, without limitation, Neoprene® or Hypalon®, for the outer covering. Category II surfboards are designed to enable surfing and have the advantage of low weight. However, no attempt has been made to describe how they might be constructed to accurately capture the complicated shapes of modern surfboards. This is a disadvantage that precludes them from use in high performance surfing.
What has yet to be described is a surfboard that keeps the clear benefits of inflatable surfboards in Category II and enables high performance surfing with accurate duplication of surfboard shapes. Surfboard performance determines the level of surfing ability a given board will support. For example, without limitation, performance influences what surfing maneuvers can be executed and how well these maneuvers can be done. Performance also influences what kind of waves can be optimally ridden. The present disclosure is concerned with shape and weight and does not discuss the effects of fins on performance. In general, low weight is taken as a positive trait in surfboard performance and Category II surfboards supply this trait. However, shape, by far, has the greatest effect on performance. The shape requirement entails that subtle details of surfboard shape must be captured.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a typical prior art modern squash tail short board. The figure illustrates some of the complexity of shape surfboards can have. It cannot be emphasized enough that every part of a surfboard shape influences handling characteristics and performance. Take as an example the “rocker” of a surfboard. The rocker describes the long axis curves that reaches from a nose 15 to a tail 16 of the board along the outer surface 17 underside 20 and a top deck 18. The rocker has a large influence on board performance.
The template of a surfboard, which is the shape outline as viewed from above, is also essential in defining surfboard performance characteristics. FIG. 2A, FIG. 2B, and FIG. 2C illustrate top views of exemplary prior art surfboards to illustrate the templates of these surfboards. FIG. 2A shows a typical squash tail short board, FIG. 2B shows a typical long board, and FIG. 2C shows a fish. From this top view, top deck 18 with outer surface 17 is illustrated comprising a left rail 19L and a right rail 19R, nose 15, tail 16, and a centerline 14. Each template is tailored to address certain styles of surfing, types of waves, and surfing skill levels.
In addition to the long axis curves of a surfboard are the short axis curves from right rail 19R to left rail 19L along underside 20. They are known as “vee” or “concave” depending on the shape. These curves change from the nose to the tail and exhibit great variation in shape depending on what performance characteristics are desired. FIG. 3A through FIG. 3H illustrate some common shapes with surfboard cross-sections taken near a middle section and a tail section of representative prior art surfboards. FIGS. 3A and 3B show middle and tail cross sections, respectively, of a short board with a “flat to vee” configuration. This setup emphasizes acceleration, speed and control. FIGS. 3E and 3F show middle and tail cross sections, respectively, of a big wave gun with a “triplane to vee” configuration. This shape is designed to perform at high speed in extreme conditions. FIGS. 3C and 3D show middle and tail cross sections, respectively, of a typical longboard configuration. FIGS. 3G and 3H show middle and tail cross sections, respectively, of a short board with a single to double concave configuration. This design provides more lift and acceleration through turns amongst other performance characteristics. These figures highlight the variability and complexity of short axis curves on surfboards. Another important component of these curves is along rails 19L and 19R. Rails 19L and 19R tend to have a soft edge near the front and middle of the surfboard for penetrating the face of the wave and facilitating easy transition from rail to rail. However, near the tail they tend to have a sharper edge for leverage and release when accelerating out of turns.
FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B show side views of exemplary prior art surfboards. FIG. 4A illustrates the short board also shown by way of example in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4B shows the eight-foot long board also shown by way of example in FIG. 2B. These figures dramatically illustrate the surfboard rocker. Surfboard shapers even identify sub-portions of the long axis curves of a surfboard as a nose rocker, a tail rocker, an entry rocker, a deck rocker and a rail rocker, each of which can be altered to change surfboard-handling characteristics. The nose rocker describes the curves from near a point 21 to the tip of nose 15. The tail rocker describes the curves from near a point 22 to the tip of tail 16. The deck rocker runs along deck 18 from nose 15 to tail 16. The entry rocker and the rail rocker run along underside 20. However, the rail rocker is the curve along rails 19L and 19R, while the entry rocker describes the curves closer to a centerline 14 starting near the front of the surfboard but behind point 21. These aspects of shape are vital to surfboard performance. Finally, it is notable that even the short axis contours of top deck 18 and foil are considerations in surfboard performance. The foil is the distribution of the thickness throughout a surfboard.
The interaction of rocker, template, vee or concave, foil and deck contours can lead to fairly complex curved surfaces on the surfboard outer surface 17 top deck 18 and underside 20. Small changes in these surfaces, especially underside 20 can cause significant changes in performance. Previous inflatable surfboards do not claim to enable high performance surfing but only claim that their inventions could be used for skilled surfing. They make no attempt to describe how one can accurately capture complex curvature and shape details.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for an improved surfboard that incorporates durability, safety and transportation considerations and is able to be constructed to accurately capture the complex curves and shape details of high-performance surfboards.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.